


a permanent hug

by demistories



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Post Reveal, Sunsets, mlfandomweek, rooftop dates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-17
Updated: 2016-08-17
Packaged: 2018-08-09 07:28:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7792315
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/demistories/pseuds/demistories
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>a rooftop date at sunset</p>
            </blockquote>





	a permanent hug

**Author's Note:**

> this is 410% inspired by [this gifset](http://sadrien.tumblr.com/post/149038625208)! and the title is taken from dodie clark's [a permanent hug from you](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQu4AEfTD98), but i also really love the cover she did with tessa violet! (dodie is my go to for writing love square stuff tbh)
> 
> today's prompts were love square and powers and i managed to sneak in a little bit about powers!! sorry it's not much, i've been incredibly busy. and this is also...a little...different than some of the stuff i usually write. a lot more sweeping poetic statements and all 
> 
> enjoy!

Adrien has decided there’s just something about sunsets. Something about how the blue sky gets lighter and lighter until it’s almost white, until the sun brushes the horizon and it bursts into vivid color. It’s in the way the sky to the east fades to a deep, midnight blue, even though midnight is hours away. There’s something about those days where the moon is just arriving as the sun disappears, as if they’re desperate to share the sky for just a few minutes. How blissful those days where the moon stays high for hours after sunrise must be.

There’s something about sunsets. But Adrien thinks he likes it most just before the sun falls below the skyline.

He lifts his chin and soaks in the sun’s fading rays. Yes, this is one of the best times of day. He ranks it up there with just before the sun breaks the horizon at dawn and that late night hour where the stars twinkle the brightest and the universe is quiet.

She walks up behind him on the edge of the roof, arms out like she actually needs them to keep her balance. She smiles at him as she sits down next to him, dangling her feet over the side. “Evening, mon minou.”

“Princess.” Adrien leans against her side. “I thought you might miss it.”

“I’d never miss a sunset with you,” Marinette promises. “Maman just needed some help cleaning up the bakery. But I brought you something as an apology for being late.” She hands him a plastic container.

Adrien pulls off the top. “Cookies? You know me too well,” he says. He presses a kiss to her cheek.

“You and your sweet tooth,” she teases. “I snuck your favorites from the ‘unworthy’ pile.”

“No cookie is unworthy,” he insists. “But I brought you something too.”

Marinette raises her eyebrows. “What is it?”

He smirks. “Guess.”

“Guess?”

Adrien laughs. “Yes! Guess!”

Marinette rolls her eyes fondly. “Oh sure, I can easily guess what my extremely rich boyfriend could get me. My extremely rich boyfriend who has no sense of what’s expensive and what’s not. Easy guess.”

Adrien still gets butterflies when she calls him her boyfriend. His heart skips a beat whenever she holds his hand. When she looks at him like she is right now, with her hair loose around her face and a soft smile, he feels warm and safe and _home_.

He picks up the thermos that’s been beside him waiting for her. “Unfortunately, your extremely rich boyfriend doesn’t have a very expensive gift for you today. Maybe tomorrow.”

Marinette lights up as she twists open the top and inhales the steam. “Mmm, you really are the best.” She takes a careful sip and sighs, leaning heavily against Adrien’s arm. “I’ve been craving hot chocolate all day.”

“When are you not craving hot chocolate?” Adrien asks.

“Hm… When you don’t want sweets.”

He takes a bite of a cookie. “Right, of course.”

Marinette breaks a cookie in half and dunks it in her hot chocolate.

Adrien thinks that these rooftop dates of theirs are probably his favorite types of dates. That’s not to say he doesn’t like the other dates they’ve been on. There hasn’t been a single date they’ve gone on that he hasn’t enjoyed, although that might have to do with Marinette. Nothing can really be that terrible when she’s around.

Rooftop dates are just so _them_. He considered them dates before they were really dates. Before they even knew the other’s name. Paris’ rooftops have always been their safe space. A sanctuary away from civilians and school and family and life. From their first meeting to when they finally took off the masks, they’ve found so many important moments up above the rest of the world. And in between all those important moments, there’s been thousands of small moments. Tiny moments, forgettable moments. Those are the ones Adrien cherishes the most. Ladybug taking a nap on Chat’s shoulder, Chat laughing with Marinette on her balcony, Ladybug visiting Adrien’s rooftop garden, Adrien and Marinette exchanging food at sunset.

He just likes being around her. Her presence is calming. It makes him feel happy and whole. They have no secrets, nothing to hide. He’s able to be himself around Marinette in a way he can’t around other people.

The sky is stained a bright orange as the sun brushes the horizon. Marinette probably knows the exact name of this color. She could describe it in poetry and pull it off a shelf in a fabric store.

The first time they did this, Tikki had been worried. Not that they would be seen, no one ever seems to notice them up here when they’re detransformed. Not even Adrien Agreste is as interesting as Ladybug and Chat Noir. When they’re up here as civilians, no one cares. That’s how he likes it.

No, Tikki had been worried that they were going to fall. It seemed like a silly thing to worry about at first — they fell from great heights all the time; they sprinted across roofs and danced on the beams of the Eiffel Tower — but they could see the root of her worries. It was a long way down with no magical suits to protect them or enhanced agility to help them catch themselves.

For a while, Tikki and Plagg joined them on rooftop dates. Plagg wasn’t worried at all. He was just glad that they were _finally_ getting somewhere, because he was sick of listening to Adrien swoon over Ladybug. Adrien didn’t think he swooned over Ladybug _that much_. Mostly, Plagg came for the cheese and the promise of seeing Tikki. After a few weeks, Tikki’s fears lessened. Once they promised they’d be careful, Tikki and Plagg didn’t come along so often. And Adrien and Marinette could be alone.

There is nothing exactly special about being alone. They mostly act the same way they do around other people or their kwamis. But sometimes their rooftop dates will be the first time they get a chance to be alone in days.

And Adrien is selfish when it comes to Marinette. There’s something about having all of her attention on him that Adrien can’t explain, but it makes him feel light and breathless. Every one of her kisses is a gift that he keeps close to his heart, every ‘I love you’  and every smile.

Marinette turns her head to follow a flock of birds across the sky. “I wonder what it’s like to fly,” she muses.

That’s something else about these rooftop dates. Random things and conversations that Adrien doesn’t think they’d have anywhere else. “We’ve come fairly close.”

She laughs and rests her head on his shoulder. “We fall with style, we don’t fly.”

“It’s that basically the same thing?”

“Aren’t you the science one?” He shrugs and she closes her eyes with a sigh. “Do you think I’ll ever fly?”

They’ve talked about it before. With the kwamis and without them when they refused to tell them anything more. If this was where their powers stopped or if they had more. More power somewhere inside of them just _waiting_. Or something.

They’d sat in the dwindling light, googling different things about cats and ladybugs like they hadn’t done that for hours on their own before. They researched mythologies and folklore and symbolism. Adrien joked about having nine lives. Marinette wondered how wings would work with her suit.

He hadn’t missed the wistful look in her eyes when she talked about them.

“Do you want to fly?” he asks softly.

She doesn’t answer for a moment. He’s sure she’s thought about this since she first brought it up, probably even before then. Ladybugs have wings. Ladybug does not. “I’m not sure,” she admits. “But I’d like to try.”

Adrien would like to see her try.

Marinette sits up suddenly. “The sun’s going down.”

“Indeed it is.” Adrien turns to her. The only problem with going on these dates without Plagg and Tikki is that they have to go back before it’s dark. “I’ll see you in the morning?”

She smiles and presses a long kiss to his lips. She tastes like chocolate and sugar and a little bit of cherry from her favorite lipgloss. He thinks he knows almost every tiny detail about Marinette-Dupain Cheng. She rests her forehead against his, looking up at him through her lashes. “Sleep well, chaton.”

“Night, bugaboo.”

Adrien stays for a few minutes after she’s gone. When they first started dating, it felt like she took the rest of the light with her when she left. Now, it feels like she’s lit up his soul. It’s an impossible feeling to explain. Maybe that’s why people have devoted millions and millions of words to explaining the feeling.

When they first started dating, she was the sun. Whenever she left, it was impossibly dark. It felt like something was missing. But nothing was. It just took time for him to appreciate the moon and stars just as much as the sun. Adrien’s never shied away from using cliches, he can easily call Marinette his entire universe.

**Author's Note:**

> what a nerd


End file.
